“Burnout” What is it and what can we do to prevent it?

Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay

If you’re on social media, you have probably come across the word burnout. Sometimes we see words so many times and generally understand it but haven’t taken the time to know what it truly means or what we can do about it.

Burnout is a feeling that can come after we have spent an amount of time or energy beyond our capacity focused on things outside of ourselves without taking the time we need to take care of ourselves. It can feel like complete exhaustion, feelings of negativity cynicism, and decreased personal or professional competence.

For example, a parent who doesn’t have access to childcare resources or help around the house can feel burned out from constantly needing to be on for their family and forgets an important appointment. Or a person who has worked in a profession that requires them to appear ‘happy’ all the time to make a sale or appease a boss and it creates a feeling of anger or hostility towards their workplace. Or even a teenager who has a lot going on personally at home needing to go to school and extracurriculars and get all their homework done, they don’t have the energy to dedicate full concentration to their work and their grade start to slip.

Each of these people can find themselves in a place of emotional burnout. It can feel like there is no time to shut off, no extra money to help, no safe support people to step in and it’s all on your shoulders to make your world turn. Even if those circumstances apply to you, there are still options that resources that could benefit you and help you find more balance in your life:

1. Recognize and Respond to Signs of Stress - This sounds simple but can take a lot of dedication and practice. Listening to your body to hear if it has a nervous or upset stomach, headache, clenched teeth, tense muscles can all be signs of stress. If you can have awareness, you can do something to help yourself. 
2. Set Boundaries - A boundary is a personal limit that you can establish according to what you find acceptable and comfortable. This also takes practice and trial and error but with professional guidance like meeting with a therapist from Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center could help. Boundaries can be set in relationships, at work, and with healthy coping mechanisms. 
3. Prioritize Self Care - We see this everywhere, ‘make sure you take care of yourself.’ Have you ever sat down and taken the time to think about what those things are beyond just eat, drink water, and personal hygiene? These things can look as big as getting a therapist or scheduling your yearly checkup to as small as making sure your work shoes fit correctly, or you buy yourself your favorite snack to bring to work. 
4. Exercise Body and Mind - Many imagine working out to be something sweaty and intense that happens at a gym or meditation being something time consuming and inaccessible to anyone but a trained expert, but we’d like to challenge that image. Working out can be something as simple as going on a walk during your lunch break around your building and meditation can be something as accessible as a 3-minute meditation you find on YouTube.

 
At the end of the day, your health is important. Taking time to prioritize it can be life changing. If you find yourself stuck in a rut of trying to break out but you’re finding it hard to do on your own, consider reaching out to Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center to be put in contact with a therapist. 

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